MIDDLEWICH football fans are facing a brighter future after plans for a floodlit pitch and new changing rooms got the go-ahead on Monday night.

MIDDLEWICH football fans are facing a brighter future after plans for a floodlit pitch and new changing rooms got the go-ahead on Monday night.

Congleton Borough Council's planning committee has approved plans to upgrade Middlewich Town Football Club through a #250,000 investment. The decision is a welcome boost for the club's bid to reach the North West Counties League, for which lights are a condition of entry.

For the first time, eight new floodlights measuring 15m high would illuminate the whole pitch. Previously, the club had floodlights only on the training area.

But council planners have imposed conditions to avoid any 'serious detrimental effect' on neighbours' quality of life. This includes satisfactory shielding, direct illumination onto the playing surface only, and a restriction on the hours of illumination between 10pm and 8am throughout the week.

Teams will also benefit from new changing facilities. The existing mobile, which is used as a treatment fitness room, would be replaced by a 21m by 10m extension to the clubhouse, housing new changing rooms. The old changing rooms would be converted into an office, toilets and laundry room.

The development hinges on funding from the Football Foundation and if successful, work could be completed by next summer, in time for the 2002-3 season.

But the upgrade has brought opposition from some neighbours. One, who did not wish to be named, voiced concern about the floodlights drawing bigger crowds, and with it accompanying noise and traffic congestion.

His letter stated: 'Larger crowds would mean more noise still, and more cars trying to get as close to the ground as possible. Webbs Lane is already overcrowded with residents' cars, the same can be said for Seddon Street.

Finney's Lane is too narrow for traffic to pass if cars are parked there on match nights. That leaves the Weavers, a private estate, but I fear that late arrivals will ignore that fact, and in no time considerable disturbances with parking would affect the residents, almost all elderly and likely to be upset in the process.'

The resident said: 'There would be too much congestion. Someone should look at Seddon Street, Webbs Lane, Finney's Lane, on a weekday evening and just see how full the parking spaces are. There is not enough parking available for visitors here, so where are they going to go?'